I came across these Kefs recently & am quite taken with the idea; they could work well in the lounge (when we move house) as a 2nd system streaming Tidal / Spotify / NAS or whatever. Them or something similar, I'd ideally have some floorstanders, preferring the aesthetic.

The navigation in my Audi is feeble in comparison to google maps on the iPhone. The engine management system failed very early (expensive repair), I’ve not had a mishap using a rear view mirror and parking is a skill you could master with a little practise! Parking sensors are useful for some though, I’ll give you that but guess what, the sensors in our Audi failed. I honestly have more fun in the Seat when it comes to “driving”.

A to B, I’d rather save money to spend when I get there! Driving, well 110 mph through the Apenines on two wheels was fun, nice bends.

Curious how £2ks worth of 5200s compare to the KEFs?

No sniping. Just curious. What model year is your Audi? Mine is coming up on 6 years old and I’ve not had a single problem - oil changes only. Once a year. In fact, my model year is ranked #2 in reliability of all the makes here in US. But let’s not get lost in the details. It was meant as a generalization about what was state of art 20 years ago (with aging and maintenance issues) vs current updated technology (and a warranty). For an experienced weekend mechanic tinkerer, that 20 year old S-class is the devil you know and can keep running for a million miles of luxury performance. And save $ for other stuff. I get it.

The comparison of used 5200 vs new LS50W is a very valid one. I’ve never head the 5200’s but I do have the 5000’s. These LS50W’s are uncanny for their size and paired with a sub, they are sublime. That’s all I’m saying. The form factor is the real advantage. 3200’s would be a better comparison, perhaps.

Again, what I’d really like to see is what M could do with KEF’s Uni-Q driver...

As follow up and to resurrect this thread, I sent the LS50W’s back off trial. Here’s why. It was certainly not the sound. I still encourage anyone interested to have a listen and better yet a trial. In the US, Crutchfield was very easy to deal with. Total out of pocket was $10 for a RTA shipping label. I received 60 days in home trial, free two day delivery to my door. Not an ad. Or affiliated in any way. Just a resource for those without a local dealer/other option.

The sound is still simply amazing. It was the associated “teething problems” that gave me pause. Probably the greatest problem I had was non-gapless playback from the built-in streamer. First time I had experienced it. Extemely annoying. This of course would be sidestepped by an external streamer feeding the USB in. But that defeats the all-in-one application I wanted from them. Second was the stability of the built-in streamer. It dropped frequently - both wirelessly and wired. Again, likely better with external streamer or endpoint, but not my intention. Third, the app is still a work in progress. Quite literally. They encourage feedback to development right in the app. The Tidal-App interface leaves something to be desired not as good as others, e.g. Bluesound. Also annoying was that the app would not allow iOS to iOS device transition as the Bluesound does. If I had things playing on the iPhone, I couldn’t simply open the app in my iPad and transition control.

All of these issues would be likely solved by Roon and they are an endpoint now (sort of), but I wasn’t gonna have Roon in time to try that out. For those tinkerers with external USB devices, etc, it is well worth checking into. The sound is simply astounding particularly if your application needs the form factor (size). Sound is excellent. All-in-one functionality not yet ready for primetime. I’ll watch them iron out the shortcomings and likely be back down the road. Would like to see MQA DAC’s as well, but given that they are domestic competitors, not sure that will happen? Apple Airplay2??